6 police officers, teenager killed in Ciudad Juarez ambush

6 officers, teenager killed in Ciudad Juarez ambush

Federal police and crime scene investigators work the scene Friday where federal policemen, a municipal officer and a 17-year-old boy were gunned down at a busy intersection.

Federal police and crime scene investigators work the scene Friday where federal policemen, a municipal officer and a 17-year-old boy were gunned down at a busy intersection.

Photo: Associated Press

Photo: Associated Press

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Federal police and crime scene investigators work the scene Friday where federal policemen, a municipal officer and a 17-year-old boy were gunned down at a busy intersection.

Federal police and crime scene investigators work the scene Friday where federal policemen, a municipal officer and a 17-year-old boy were gunned down at a busy intersection.

Photo: Associated Press

6 police officers, teenager killed in Ciudad Juarez ambush

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen attacked a federal police patrol at midday Friday in a busy intersection in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing at least six officers and a 17-year-old civilian.

Three carloads of gangsters opened fire on the officers near the city's airport. The dead officers included five federal policemen and a municipal policewoman, who died in her patrol car. Three others were listed in grave condition.

Friday's attack marked the deadliest day for security forces in more than two years of gang warfare in Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people bordering El Paso

But it wasn't the only place besieged.

Federal police shot it out with alleged gangsters in Morelos, the state just south of Mexico City, on Friday morning, killing three. Army troops killed at least seven gunmen in a skirmish Wednesday afternoon in the marijuana producing mountains of Durango state, 600 miles south of Ciudad Juarez.

Military troops on Friday also seized the municipal police headquarters of two suburbs of Monterrey, where yet more gangland violence erupted this week. Federal and state officials say that local police in the Monterrey area often work in conjunction with the gangsters.

U.S. warns tourists

The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey issued a warning Thursday for Americans to avoid travel in many parts of northern Mexico because of the ongoing violence.

In the Juarez attack, the officers had been flagged down by a street vendor, who asked for assistance, when the gunmen began shooting, officials said.

Police didn't specify whether the slain 17-year-boy was believed to be among the attackers or was a bystander.

The Mexican army, which has had nearly 7,000 troops patrolling Juarez for more than a year, this month turned over primary security responsibilities there to the federal police.

This year alone, more than 760 people have been killed in gangland warfare in Juarez, Mexico's bloodiest city and one of the most dangerous in the world. Some 5,000 have been killed in the city in the past 28 months.

The victims have include three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, who were ambushed in two separate attacks after attending a birthday party on March 13. Lesley Enriquez, who worked at the consulate, and her husband, an El Paso County jail guard, were killed in one attack. The Mexican husband of another consulate employee was killed minutes before them.

Mexican police this week arrested five members of the Barrio Azteca, an El Paso based prison and street gang that also operates in Juarez, in connection with the crime. An Azteca leader had been arrested for the crime earlier this month. Officials say the Aztecas are allied with the drug smuggling organization that dominates Juarez.

Friday's ambush took place near the working class neighborhood where suspected Azteca gunmen killed 13 high school students and two adults on January 31.